Category Archives: Consumer affairs

Howe calls for metrication progress

Posted on 2012-05-15 by Erithacus

Lord Howe of Aberavon, the former Conservative Chancellor and Deputy Prime Minister, intervened in the Queen’s Speech debate on Tuesday to reiterate his call for the Government to complete the conversion of the UK’s weights and measures to metric units. … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumer affairs, General, Road signs | Tagged , , , , | 30 Comments

Just how much does not being fully metric cost the UK economy?

Posted on 2012-03-27 by derekp

One of our regular readers, John Frewen-Lord, has compiled a quiz, or rather two quizzes, to illustrate the waste resulting from the UK’s measurement muddle. The editors of Metric Views are unsure why a penalty of £1 per second has … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, General, Technical, Transport | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments

The link between measurement skills and numeracy

Posted on 2012-03-09 by ronniec

Poor numeracy is blighting Britain’s economic performance and ruining lives, says a new charity launched to champion better maths skills.

Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, General, Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Goodbye Imperial. Hello British weights and measures

Posted on 2012-03-02 by ronniec

We, the public, are encouraged by some politicians, by the DfT and by elements of the media to pick and mix our measurement units – to use both imperial and metric. So why has imperial as a system fallen from … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumer affairs, General, History | Tagged , , | 22 Comments

Prospects improve for food energy labelling using SI units

Posted on 2012-02-24 by derekp

One of our readers wrote to Sainsbury’s to ask that guideline daily amounts (GDAs) of energy shown on packaging should be shown in kilojoules, the SI unit, as well as or instead of kilocalories. He has received a reply that … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumer affairs, Health, Law, Science | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Speed, momentum and resistance

Posted on 2012-02-09 by ronniec

Which is preferable: a swift metric transition or a leisurely one? UKMA would have preferred the former. Successive UK governments have opted for the latter, believing that it carries less risk to their popularity. Ronnie Cohen assesses progress.

Posted in Consumer affairs, General, Media, Road signs | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Why I became involved with measurement matters

Posted on 2012-01-20 by ronniec

One of our readers has written to explain why he became interested in the campaign to complete Britain’s prolonged metric changeover.

Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, Health, Road signs, Science, Technical, Transport | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

Which? sees the light – and Panorama joins in

Posted on 2011-12-19 by Erithacus

By an odd co-incidence both “Which?” magazine and the BBC’s flagship “Panorama” programme  have recently run stories on the scams employed by the big supermarkets to prevent customers from comparing “value for money” in their weekly shopping. However, despite their … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumer affairs, General, Law | Tagged , , , , , | 17 Comments

Heading for the exit?

Posted on 2011-12-10 by derekp

Problems of sovereign debt in the eurozone have seen the UK side-tracked in EU decision making, and, say some commentators, headed for the exit. Is this situation likely to impact on the UK’s stalled metric changeover?

Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, General, History, Road signs | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Christmas approaches so reach for a mail order catalogue

Posted on 2011-10-29 by derekp

One of our regular contributors has submitted a comment about mail order catalogues, even though he admits there is no Metric Views article to which it relates. We are happy to respond by reproducing part of one of several articles … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumer affairs, General | Tagged , , | 10 Comments